Questions about pressure washing and paint spraying

[plin321]

I'm getting ready to paint the exterior of my house and have a coiuple of questions:

Once I finish pressure washing the house, how long can I wait until I finish painting it? Do I need to paint it right away (e.g. within 2-3 days), or can I complete the washed areas over two or three weekends? Ideally, I would wash only the walls I have time to paint, but I'll be renting the washer.

I'll also rent an airless sprayer and am a little unsure about how much of a problem overspray will be and how much masking /covering up I'll need to do to protect everything nearby. Will a plastic tarp extending 3' from the wall be enough? When painting higher parts of the house, how should I minimize the "drifting" of overspray?

[Al Bundy]

[e-mail] wrote in news:1186094306.250225.242470 @j4g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

No. In fact, I'd say waiting a few days is a good thing if there is any bare wood exposed. Lets any moisture from washing evaporate. Paint will peel off of damp wood.

I always use a brush .

It gets a thicker coat of paint on. No neighbors have ever filed a claim that there is fine paint overspray on their car or house whether it's a fact or they are just looking for a freebee car buffing.

[Abe]

All the pros I've seen pressure wash the house on one day, then wait a week for complete drying before painting.

[dadiOH]

Mask everything...windows, soffits...anything that you don't want to wind up painted. By the time you finish that you could have painted with a roller/brush.

[Steve Barker]

Your sprayer was misadjusted or misused if you really did have this result.

steve